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From Haiti to Pakistan – Track Your Disaster Donations Better!

When the earthquake struck Haiti back in January, the world opened its wallets and generously supported the Haitians with over 1 billion dollars in donations. According to this recent article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, much of the Â $1.3 billion remains unused. The article sites the specific example of American Red Cross who has only spent $133 million dollars out of the close to $500 million donations that it received. This is extremely frustrating to donors. The organizations asked for money under the banner of “immediate need of assistance” and yet 6 months after the earthquake so much of the funds are still unused. This lack of transparency will lead to donor frustration – we are already starting to see that play out.

At Jolkona, we try to address this donor frustration by providing tangible, meaningful proof of impact for every donation. In the days after the earthquake, we did not have any projects on the ground for people to give. However, by now we have projects in Haiti that assist in the long term recovery efforts. Here are our Haiti projects right now:

This provided a lot valuable lessons for us in terms of how to manage disaster relief and recovery in a way that effectively fits the Jolkona model. Now Pakistan is facing one of the worst floods in the country’s history – billions of dollars of damage and over 12 million people affected thus far. In Pakistan, we have been able to respond and set up a project within days since we had partners who were already on the ground.

This proves Jolkona’s ability to quickly respond to relatively fluid situations (especially around disasters) and help in the recovery process. AsÂ Jolkona grows, so will its ability to respond to future disasters around the world.

However, for now our focus is on the floods in Pakistan. Please give to help the displaced families in the floods in Pakistan. As feedback, you will receive information on how your donation was used by a specific family. You can continue to give through the traditional methods and they need all the help they can get. Through Jolkona, you have the opportunity to directly and immediately impact 600 displaced people and know exactly how you impacted them.